The New Guard: Diane, A Broad

Like any good expat in Paris, Diane Yoon is obsessed with food. And she has the photos—not to mention delicious recipes—on her blog Diane, A Broad, to prove it. She also has sass. Her energy spills from her words and you can practically feel the wind in your hair as she takes you on a ride through her Paris—and beyond.

A continuation of the “new guard” of Parisian bloggers, meet Diane!

Hometown:

Los Angeles. City of angels, city of dreams, city of juice cleanses and no public transportation.

Current quatier:

I live in the 16th, though I used to live in the Marais and am now spending more and more of my time in Montmartre.

How long have you been in Paris?

I've been around for year and change.

What brought you there?

Love (cliché, but true) and a job that lets me work from anywhere.

What do you do for a living?

I work in corporate law doing mergers and acquisitions and business development. I also do some freelance writing and photography on the side, and in a past lives I've also taught salsa dancing and knitting. 

Your favorite thing about living in Paris:

Is it cheating to say the food? Honestly, it's such a big part of all of our lives. I love that in Paris, it's so much easier to develop relationships with the people who bake your bread, sell your fish, and ripen your cheese, instead of just getting it from some grocery store (though I certainly do visit Monoprix now and then).

The coolest thing about being an expat:

French boys aren't used to us aggressive American girls and (usually) find being hit on disarming enough to be charming. 

Your “secret” about Paris:

It's incredibly easy to get isolated and depressed in Paris, especially if you don't speak good French. My secret to enjoying and making the most of Paris was finding a group of like-minded people to experience the city with. For me, it was bloggers. For anyone else, it may be a church group, or a music society, or what-have-you. It sounds corny, but Paris made me realize how important friendship is.

Your favorite thing to blog about:

It really depends on my mood! For many months I blogged almost exclusively about recipes, and I love that topic because it's something that comes from my brain and hands and kitchen that readers can take and actually make something from. It's like a virtual tangibility transfer. Lately, I've enjoyed doing posts about Paris and travel more and more, because my photography has improved to the point where I can actually convey the mood I'm going for with my photos.

Right Bank or Left Bank:

I'm a Right Bank girl through-and-through

Café Flore or Deux Magots.

I've never been to either. Shocker, right?

Tuileries or Luxembourg:

I prefer smaller green spaces, and I used to live around the corner, so Place des Vosges for me.

Ladurée or Pierre Hermé:

Pierre Hermé if for the Mogador alone

WH Smith or Gaglinani:

Kindle

Steak Frites or Salade Chevre Chaud:

Steak frites, saignant

Costes or Crillon:

I wish

Colette or Merci:

Merci! I love having lunch at their Cinema Café, where they play old Audrey Hepburn movies like Sabrina.

Croissant or tartine:

Croissant, with butter and confiture

Café terrace or canal-side picnic:

Terrace for one or two, picnic for a bigger group

Camembert or Comté:

Comté all the way